


Scarlet Eyes

by Smooth_Real_Cha_Cha



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Kurapika is a Little Shit, Like the Phantom Troupe arc but make it mafia, M/M, Mob AU, Modern AU, No Nen AU, i really don’t know how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27234145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smooth_Real_Cha_Cha/pseuds/Smooth_Real_Cha_Cha
Summary: Kurapika’s home is burned, his entire family, all thirty-seven of them, shot dead in a single night, and Kurapika himself is missing. Leorio is determined to figure out what happened, and to help his friend get revenge.The only problem?Leorio doesn’t know Kurapika as much as he thinks he does.
Relationships: Kurapika & Leorio Paladiknight, Kurapika/Leorio Paladiknight
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Scarlet Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> ‘Scarlet Eyes’ is a working title so if y’all have a better name suggestion please tell me—-

Leorio

Leorio hadn’t really known Kurpika at all when the incident had happened. No, that wasn’t entirely true. They had been friends--- good ones, the strange duo of the small, stuck-up student council president, and the towering slacker a near-constant sight in the crowded hallways of their high school. Kurapika would eviscerate Leorio in classes, cuss him out for not paying attention during lunch, and spend his free evenings helping him study in the library or watching Leorio play video games at the tall boy’s tiny apartment, his graceful arrogance and short temper a merciful breath of fresh air on the stress that was their shared senior-year existence.  
He was as constant a presence in Leorio’s life as the bus he rode on every morning, or the moon he gazed up at every night.  
Maybe it had been naive of Leorio to assume he had known everything about the smaller boy. But before the incident, Leorio had started to think he might know too much about the other boy. He knew that Kurapika hated spiders and loved his family store, a small jeweler’s business that had been in his family for generations; and Leorio knew that when Kurapika wasn’t helping him, he was helping tutor freshman and middle schoolers; and that he liked tutoring more than his complaining would suggest, even helping the two 6th graders he tutored make parkour videos. Leorio knew Kurapika liked hanging out with him enough to do it every day he was free, even if the smaller boy took every opportunity to act like an asshole around him.  
Leorio had always assumed that he could understand Kurpika, and Kurapika could understand him.  
Unfortunately, he was only half-right.  
It all started the night before a particularly harrowing exam. Leorio had begged Kurapika to stay over at his place to study (teach Leorio half a semester’s worth of history) and they’d reviewed together, walking Leorio through the history of post-revolutionary war America. As always, Kurapika had no patience with any attempts Leorio made to steer the conversation.  
“Oi.” The smaller boy held up a sheet of homework and smacked Leorio over the head with it. “Review this passage again, and tell me what you wrote wrong.”  
Leorio smirked. “I just wrote that the “Era of Good Feelings” would’ve felt a little better if some of the senators just bon---Ouch! You gave me a paper cut, asshole!”  
Kurapika smirked. “This shit is why your grades are in the toilet.”  
Leorio pretended to scowl. “Uhh. I can’t remember all these names and dates. Can we review Bio?”  
Kurapika’s lips thinned. “No.”  
“And why is that?”  
Kurapika huffed. “Because you don’t need help with AP Bio.”  
Leorio gave him a cheeky grin, “That’s an odd way of saying I have better grades than you in that class---Ow! Ow! Fine! Stop!---”  
It was a normal, quiet night, a night of laughter, of boiled ramen on the stovetop for both of them, a night of the two of them staying up a little later than Kurapika probably wanted; playing Mario Cart and eventually passing out on the couch.  
In the morning, Leorio parted ways with Kurapika at the doorway, promising to meet up before their first period so Leorio could get a little more review in.  
That morning, Leorio had anxiously waited by their shared corner of the school library, a history textbook becoming slick with sweat in his hands as he paced back and forth.  
Kurapika must be late---though he had never allowed it to happen before. His bus must’ve broken down, or his car towed. Leorio tried not to think about it.  
He couldn’t quite manage to pay attention to the rest of his classes. Every class he had with Kurapika (and those were quite a few) he waited for the golden-haired boy to stroll in with his telltale confidence, to hand in an excused absence and shoot Leorio a stare, or a quick wink, depending on his mood.  
But he never came.  
Leorio couldn’t believe it. Kurapika did not miss school, ever. Not for sick days, not for holidays, not for anything. On one memorable occasion, he had shown up with the flu and a 102-degree fever and infected half the senior class due to his refusal to let the day’s work slip past him. So Kurapika didn’t miss school. But today he was gone, and Leorio didn’t know why.  
As soon as he jumped off the bus, he was racing to Kurapika’s family apartment, his shoes scuffing on the hard pavement. Kurapika loved his family, it could be possible that a sudden death or illness in the family made him skip school.  
Leorio had laughed out loud the first time Kurapika had told him about his family living situation. “Thirty-seven of you? In the same apartment building? You’re joking.”  
But he hadn’t. Apparently, when his grandparents had emigrated to America, they had taken their entire family with them, bought out an apartment complex, and set to work filling the place with tenants-- and eventually, children and grandchildren. His parents still lived in the building, along with Kurapika’s aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins--- It had sounded ludicrous, and exhausting. But Kurapika had been proud of it.  
“It’s my family asshole. My clan. We stuck together. My grandma said it made her feel more like she was back in the “old country”.”  
“Alright.” Leorio had said, watching Kurapika. His face had lit up so brightly when he talked about his family, it was almost a shame to make fun of him. Almost. “But don’t come crying back to me when your folks try to turn you into an inbred hillbilly.”  
Kurapika had kicked him, and then laughed, and Leorio had laughed right back.  
So when Leorio turned the corner to Kurapika’s apartment, the self-proclaimed Kurta Clan, and saw the yellow caution tape, the scent of char, and the thin haze of smoke and heat that still permeated from the wreckage, all he could think about was Kurapika’s bright, smiling face, how his dark brown eyes lit up when he spoke of his family. He took a step back in shock once he saw it.  
The apartment had been burned down to its foundations, the dense heat of the bricks still smoldering under the afternoon sun. He saw an ambulance, policemen swarming the scene. Leorio’s brain was picking up information in fuzzy bursts, a cloth-covered gurney there, a flash of still-burning flame there. He raced forward, grabbing the shoulder of the nearest policeman.  
“What--- what happened?” His voice warbled, stuttered. “Sir--”  
The policeman yanked his hand away before Leorio had time to think. “Son, unless you have information pertaining to the case, you can’t be here. This is an active investigation--”  
The policeman’s words went in through one ear and out the other, Leorio’s tired, frazzled brain unable to process the wreckage of Kurapika’s home. “Sir, my best friend--- he lives in that apartment. He was staying with me last night, to study. When did the fire start? Did he come by here?” Was he already inside when the fire started? Leorio wanted to ask, couldn’t ask.  
The policeman scratched his head. “It started around 3 am last night. I need to ask that you leave now, I can’t disclose any more information about the case--- wait did you say you knew someone in the apartment who wasn’t there when the fire started?”  
Leorio sighed. So Kurapika hadn’t been in the apartment when it had set ablaze. “Yes sir, My friend, Kurapika Kurta. He’s probably about 5’ 6, blond hair. Has he come by here?”  
The moment he spoke the words, Leorio realized he had made an error, if the flash of greed that lit the policeman’s face was anything to go by. “Son,” He said, placing a firm, tight-gripped hand onto Leorio’s shoulder. “I’m going to take you to the station, and we’ll try and find your friend as soon as possible. We just need to ask you some questions first.”  
Leorio tried to pull his shoulder out of the policeman’s grip, but his hand dug in tight to the meat of Leorio’s shoulder. “Sir, I just really need to know if you’ve seen my friend, then I’ll get out of your investigation. I wouldn't want to impede the process.” He tried to channel as much of Kurapika’s kiss-up smarminess into his voice as he could, but his heart was racing with fear, and Leorio had never been good at hiding his emotions.  
“Nonsense.” The policeman pulled him to his car and guided him into the backseat. It felt suspiciously like getting arrested. “We need to file a missing person’s report for your friend, don’t we? I’ll be happy to answer any question you might have on the drive there.” Leorio’s growing suspicions were confirmed as the policeman locked his car with a resounding click and turned away from the car to talk to one of his fellow officers, a short blond man with a young-looking face and an odd-looking red cellphone. Wait. Leorio noticed the man’s--boy really, he couldn't be older than Leorio himself-- uniform hung oddly on his frame, obviously too big in the shoulders, and too snug in the hips. Leorio had never been the brightest, but he had run enough small-time cons to know when someone didn’t belong.  
That blond-haired boy didn’t belong.  
So who was he then? That was the question. Leorio focused his gaze on the boy and the policeman, watched as the boy pulled a manila file out of the bag in his hand and handed it to the officer. Something wasn’t right here. He said it was an active investigation. Arson? Or is there something more? And why do they want to know where Kurapika is?  
He watched as the boy in the odd-fitting uniform passed similar files to the other officers at the scene. To an outside observer, the boy could’ve been anything, a supervisor handing out reports, a lackey officer doing the grunt work for the others, just an honest man doing his honest work for the good of his fellow men. But Leorio saw the way the officer’s eyes lit up whenever they were passed an envelope, the way they slyly slipped the folder into their coats or bags.  
What is it? Leorio thought wildly. Money? Drugs? Blackmail? Am I reading too far into this? Is Kurapika in danger? Where is he?  
“Kurapika...” His name was a whistle on his tongue. It could nearly be mistaken for a breath of air if not for the sharp edges of the letters.  
The officer had returned. He opened the back seat door and climbed in, holding up a tape recorder so Leorio could see it.  
“I’m going to do the interview here so we don’t have to drive to the station.” Bullshit. He just wants this off the record. Leorio thought angrily. Then an idea came to him. “Sir, would you mind if, before you record, I call my mother? I’m already late and I don’t want to worry her.”  
The policeman nodded, but Leorio noticed that he shifted somewhat, so that his hand was resting on his taser. “Go ahead, Son.”  
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the recording mode, then quickly closed it and called his mother. The phone line rang, but she didn’t pick up. Of course she didn’t. She was still at work at this time, and wouldn’t be home for hours. Leorio was counting on that.  
“Hey ma,” He said, trying his best to keep his voice free of any warbling or stutter. “Sorry I called. Just wanted you to know I might be home a little later. Something happened with Kurapika so I’m by his place. I’ll try and get dinner on the stove as quickly as possible for you. See you soon, love you.”  
He ended the call, quickly flashed the policeman his phone to show he had ended the call, then stuffed it in his pocket, but not before he quickly switched apps and hit record. The call to his mom meant the policeman would be hesitant to keep him for a long time, and the recording meant if, in a pinch, he could hold them accountable as well.  
“Alright.” The policeman hadn’t noticed anything. Leorio noticed he was still holding the manilla envelope the boy had given him. If it was just evidence he would’ve placed it down somewhere in the car. Definitely something he didn’t want to part with. But at this point everything Leorio had was circumstantial, little nods to foul play. I need evidence.  
Unfortunately, he had no idea where to get it.  
“Sir.” He asked. “Please, what happened to the Kurtas? I just want to make sure my friend will know everything once we find him. I don’t want him wondering about what happened.”  
The policeman cleared his throat. “Last night there was an-- incident. We believe robbers, maybe gang members--- broke into the apartment complex. They murdered the Kurta family, as well as a few of the other tenants in the building and stole all their valuables, then torched the evidence with a few small explosives. Unfortunately, we have no DNA evidence due to the fire, and while we were able to get to the scene quickly, they had already escaped.”  
Leorio’s head was spinning with the new information, but one thing stood out clearly. “They murdered the Kurtas? All thirty-six of them?”  
The policeman’s lips thinned. “Yes. They were all shot in various locations, but we haven't determined the bullet type or gun model yet due to the lack of evidence--”  
“Were the rest of the tenants murdered?”  
“Only a few others. We’ve determined that the target of the attack was the Kurtas, though we aren’t sure what they were looking for. We think they might have been looking for jewels or cash since the Kurtas run a jewelry business.”  
Then they would’ve raided the store. Leorio thought. There was something the police knew, something they weren't telling him. There must have been a reason Kurapika wasn’t here, a reason that he ran--- if he did run.  
“Now.” The police officer’s tone was heavy, a dark edge creeping into his voice. “Tell me about your friend, Kurapika Kurta. You said he was with you?”  
“Yessir.” Leorio nodded. “We stayed over at mine last night. He was helping me study and accidentally fell asleep at my place. We were supposed to meet at school and study but he didn’t come. I came over to his place to check on him, in case he was sick, and then I saw the wreck and assumed the worst. I would’ve called him, but he never picks up his mobile.”  
“A boy matching his description showed up here this morning. He said he was a friend of the family--” Leorio mentally kicked himself. Of course, he managed to bungle up Kurapika’s cover. “--and wanted to know what happened. We were bringing out the last of the bodies at the time, and he got quite distressed and ran away. Do you have any reason he lied about his identity?”  
He probably noticed you looking fishy as shit. Leorio thought. But what he said was “I don’t know sir. He was probably quite distressed, as you said. He’s very rational-- he’s probably just figuring out accommodations for himself now that he can no longer-- umm--- stay in his house.”  
The policeman watched him intently, then sighed. “So you have no idea of his current location?”  
“No sir.”  
“May I ask your name, son?”  
“It’s uhh..” Leorio racked his brain. “Tonpa. Tonpa Hunter. Here, I’ll give you my number.” Tonpa was going to be mad as hell if he ever figured out Leorio gave his name and number to the police, but Leorio wasn’t going to take the chance that they were going to find Kurapika through him.  
“It was good of you to look out for a friend, Tonpa.” The policeman said as he unlocked the car and let Leorio out.  
“Of course,” Leorio said as he climbed out of the car. “I’ll always look out for him.”  
As Leorio ran home, dodging through side streets and making sure no one was on his tail before jumping two fences and climbing up a fire escape to his apartment’s unlocked back window, he couldn’t help sending out a fervent prayer to wherever Kurapika was.  
Goddamnit, you stupid asshole. Wherever you are, just be safe.  
And soon that singular day without Kurapika turned into a week, and then two, and then a month. Leorio became used to walking the corridors alone, to stop looking over his shoulder for his blond-haired companion. He stopped flinching whenever Kurapika’s name was called, just tuned out people whispering about the student council president’s strange disappearance.  
Two months had passed, and Leorio had almost given up hope of seeing his friend again, when in the middle of AP Bio--- Leorio’s favorite class, the door opened. Leorio hadn't even noticed at first, absorbed in the lesson, but when even the teacher stopped to stare, he glanced over.  
His heart leapt into his throat. He felt like crying with joy. He felt like screaming.  
After a moment, their eyes met. His hair was longer, almost touching his shoulders. He was wearing a black turtleneck and jeans. His face was gaunt and his eyes were bleak.  
“Kurapika?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos are much appreciated—-


End file.
